1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for retrieving objects such as golf balls.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for retrieving golf balls are well known. Examples of such retrievers being scoops or single loop devices for capturing a golf ball, U.S. Pat. No. 2,524,527, a pair of loops for clamping around the ball, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,452,679, 2,205,345, 3,887,225, 4,046,413 and 4,746,156, and a pair of loops and a bar for capturing the ball, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,029,097 and 4,046,413, the disclosures of which are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein.
A well designed golf ball retriever should be simple to operate and have a high rate of success in capturing the ball, whether the ball is in water, mud, sand, tall grass, foliage or the cup. The retriever should also be light weight, compact and have as few parts as possible to reduce costs and increase its useful life.
A common problem with known retrievers is that they are difficult to operate and do not successfully capture and retrieve balls from a variety of environments. This problem is particularly prevalent when a ball is submerged in water. Mud and underwater plants can increase the difficulty in capturing the ball, and once captured, the viscosity of the water tends to push the ball out of the retriever when moved through the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,926 to DiNardo also discloses a golf ball retriever that is similar to the retriever disclosed herein. DiNardo discloses a retriever having a pair of concentric loops, the inner loop being pivotable with respect to the fixed outer loop. The DiNardo retriever utilizes a unique “spring-action” trap for securing the ball. However, this spring-action can be somewhat temperamental in use. The retriever is most often used to retrieve balls that are in the water, in which case the ball is often surrounded by soft and mushy vegetation or substrate. Therefore, it is desirable that the spring-action is easily sprung because there is simply nothing firm to press the ball against to release the trap. This can often result in pressing the ball deeper into the vegetation.
Conversely, the trap must be reset if it has been sprung but it did not successfully entrap the ball. To do so, the user must pull the retriever out of the water, manually reset the trap by hand, and then attempt to retrieve the ball again. Thus, there is a fine line between having a trap which is easily sprung, and having one which is released too easily. DiNardo attempts to overcome this by providing “jaws” in the inner loop which partially engage the spring in an attempt to provide the optimal amount of force necessary to spring the trap. However, this does not sufficiently help the user because in some circumstances the jaws may provide too much resistance, and they do nothing to keep the user from having to manually resetting the trap by hand.
The present invention solves these and other problems with prior art retrievers by providing a reset tab allowing the trap in the DiNardo retriever to be easily and quickly reset without having to pull the entire retriever from the water and manually reset the trap by hand.